Bellator 198 Recap: Fedor Stops Mir in 48 Seconds

Fedor Emelianenko will move on in Bellator’s heavyweight grand prix tournament, defeating Frank Mir by TKO in less than a minute in the main event of Bellator 198, which took place at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.

The action started hot early, with Mir almost immediately tagging and rocking Emelianenko. But Emelianenko recovered took down Mir, who quickly brought the fight back to the feet. Just seconds later, “The Last Emperor” landed a hard left shot that knocked down Mir, and the former PRIDE champion quickly finished the former UFC champion.

Emelianenko will now face Chael Sonnen in the first semifinal of the tournament. Sonnen entered the cage for a faceoff with Emelianenko following the bout.

“The only thing I hate more than being in Chicago is being in the ring with you,” Sonnen said, despite showing sportsmanship to the longtime MMA legend. “The next time I do so, it won’t be for long.”

This win bounces Emelianenko back from his Bellator debut — a first-round TKO loss to Matt Mitrione back in June. This is his first win on American soil since November 2009. Mir, who made his Bellator debut and in an MMA bout for the first time since 2016, has now lost three straight.

The rest of the main card was also filled with finishes — all coming by submission, and three coming in the first round.

In the co-main event, Emmanuel Sanchez got Sam Sicilia to the ground and quickly dominated, nearly locking on a couple of leg submissions before finishing him off with an arm-triangle choke.

Meanwhile, Rafael Lovato Jr. locked in an armbar on Gerald Harris to get a victory a little over a minute into their bout. After a couple of submissions attempts and domination on the ground in the first round, Neiman Gracie caught Javier Torres in an arm-triangle to get his own submission win. Both Lovato and Gracie improve to 8-0.

In the main card opener, Dillon Danis, a friend of Conor McGregor, made his professional MMA debut and made quick work of Kyle Walker, locking in an unusual toe hold and submitting him in just under two minutes.